When I was a JW and still living with my parents I remember the way my father held what could almost be described as contempt for archeologists, paleontologists, and other scientists who dared to try explain what happened in past. He justified this attidtude with the argument that these people don’t have enough evidence to make such claims with any certainty.
However, I see now that his viewpoint was more likely a defense mechanism to protect his presupposed conclusion that everything described in the Bible actually happened. I remember when I was making my exit from the cult I tried to explain my agnostic atheist position to my parents and it was like talking to a wall because no evidence I provided to prove the Bible was inaccurate was ever good enough for them. The evidence of scientists and historians in support of scenarios that don’t involve magic was just simply too outlandish for my parents to accept. Their entire narrative of history requires that miracles, magic, angles, and demons all influenced the world in very tangible ways in one particular geographic area in the distant past and between then and now such magical forces have stopped manifesting themselves in such obvious ways for no apparent reason.
I’ve recent thought of an illustration that exemplifies the absurdity of such a position and thought I might share it. It’s kind like if someone was accused of stealing something from a store, but they insist that a magic gremlin put the stolen item in their bag, and then when video evidence is produced of the person in question stealing said object they insist that the gremlin used magic to alter the footage, and now that the gremlin has set him up it disappeared without a trace and will never be heard from again.
In short; it’s frustrating when someone will heavily scrutinize a plausible scenario and demand more evidence, but will then go right around and accept an explanation that literally invokes magic without a second thought.